Dr. Seaborg kept a journal while chairman of the AEC. The journal consisted of a diary written at home each evening, correspondence, announcements, minutes, and the like. He was careful about classified matters; nothing was included that could not be made public, and the journal was reviewed by the AEC before his departure in 1971. Nevertheless, more than a decade after his departure from the AEC, the Department of Energy subjected two copies of Dr. Seaborg's journals-- one of which it had borrowed-- to a number of classification reviews. He came unannounced to my Senate office in September of 1997 to tell me of the problems he was having getting his journal released, saying it was something he wished to have resolved prior to his death. Although he has left us, it is fitting that his journal should finally be returned to his estate. This bill would do just that. I introduced a bill to return to Dr. Seaborg his journal in its original, unredacted form but to no avail, so bureaucracy triumphed. It was never returned. Now he has left us without having the satisfaction of resolving the fate of his journal. It is devastating that a man who gave so much of his life to his country was so outrageously treated by his own government.
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(1) Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg was a truly great American who made indispensable contributions in the development of nuclear energy.
(2) Dr. Seaborg was the co-discoverer of plutonium and eight other elements and as a result of these discoveries was awarded the 1951 Nobel Prize for chemistry.
(3) While serving as Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), Dr. Seaborg maintained a journal consisting of a diary, correspondence, announcements, minutes of meetings, and other documents of historical value.
(4) In preparing the journal, Dr. Seaborg took care to include only information which was not classified and could be made public.
(5) Before leaving the Atomic Energy Commission, Dr. Seaborg submitted the journal to the AEC's Division of Classification for review.
(6) Dr. Seaborg's journal was cleared by the Division of Classification, virtually without deletion.
(7) Twelve years later, in 1983, the chief historian at the Department of Energy asked to borrow a copy of Dr. Seaborg's journal in order to write a history of the AEC.
(8) When the journal was returned to Dr. Seaborg three years later, passage after passage was redacted, including explicitly public information, such as the published code names of nuclear weapons tests, and purely personal material, such as his description of accompanying his children on a `trick or treat' outing one Halloween evening.
SEC. 2. DECLASSIFICATION OF SEABORG JOURNAL.
The Secretary of Energy shall surrender Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg's journal, which he prepared while serving as Chairman of the AEC, to Dr. Seaborg's estate. The journal shall be returned in the original, unredacted form in which it was lent to the Department of Energy in 1983.